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Jabra EarBoom for phones with Universal 2.5mm Jack

Jabra EarBoom for phones with Universal 2.5mm Jack

List Price: $24.99
Your Price: $9.99
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Microphone is poor - skip it.
Review: I liked the way the earpiece fit in my ear. Usually, earpieces fall out for me, but this one had a nice design.

However, my friends don't hear me when I use it. They describe it as sounding like "a bad cellphone connection - muffled." Because of that, I can't really use it. I hear my friends just fine, but they complain.

I then bought the Jabra EarWave Boom with Universal 2.5mm connector. It's a different design (wraps around the ear) and costs about twice as much as this one, but the sound is much better. My friends are happy.

Do yourself, but more importantly the people you call, a favor and skip this model. There's really no point if the sound is poor.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: best earbud ever made
Review: I really like this handsfree set. It is very comfortable in my ear with the different size gels and also you have the option to use right or left ear. The microphone is just next to your cheek. I can move around with it and will not fall off or rub against anything close to my face. The audio is great. I can also take it anywhere with me. Not just in the car! I highly recommend this earset.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Make sure it fits!
Review: I recently purchased one of these for use with my Sprint Touchpoint 2200. I just cannot find a good fit with any of the eargels provided. After a while they start to hurt and I am currently looking for another headset with a more comfortable earpiece. Also, depending on where I am in the room (or rather, where my phone is pointing) there is a background hum that can get rather loud (especially if the phone is in the recharge cradle). I'm not sure if this is due to the headset, or if it's a problem with my phone. The people I call also complain about a very faint echo if I use the headset. Also, I find the volume in the earpiece way too loud even on the lowest setting on my phone.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: great, but confusing
Review: I think this is a pretty good earpiece... granted, I've only used one other (it was a flimsy little thing that came w/ my friend's Nokia), but this one far surpasses that one in sound quality and comfort. Where my friend's would fall out of my ear, this one (once I got it figured out) never comes loose. Second, listening to people on my friend's, I would have to turn up the sound to hear the person well, and then they sounded muffled and distorted; but on my Jabra I can actually turn down the volume on my phone and they sound crisp and clear-- moreso than when I'm not using the earpiece. Finally, when my friend calls me and uses her earpiece, she sounds distant and muffled; I've had no complaints from the people I'm talking to using the Jabra, and, in fact, my mom said it sounds better when I use the EarBoom than when I don't.

The ear gels are a bit hard to get used to. They are oddly shaped (as you can see in the picture), and there are six of them total-- three of them for each ear. Lots of reviewers complained about the fit and comfort of the ear gels, while others claim these are the most comfortable earpieces they've used and that they fit perfectly... I can honesly say I've had both experiences. When I first got this unit the earpiece kept falling out everytime that I would turn my head: *very* frustrating. I tried pushing it into my ear as hard as I could, I tried holding it in place with my hand, but that only seemed to defeat the purpose of having a hands-free earpiece. Nothing seemed to work. I was thinking of returning it. I was thinking of throwing it into traffic on I-95. And then one day, somehow, I came to the realization that you have to sort of twist it into your ear-- with the little poky-out part stuck in the fold of your ear next to the ear canal (not the fold on the top of your ear; if you do that it'll just pop out again)-- and then *voila* it stays put. Matter o' fact, it'll stay put so well that it'll be a little bit difficult-- even *painful*-- to get out again.
I can imagine that people with different ear sizes, different patience levels, and lower IQs might have different experiences than my own. But all I can say is that once I had this little bugger figured out, I was golden. I love this thing and almost never talk on the phone without it.
Admittedly, it is a bit difficult to get into your ear-- I'd say it takes upward of 2 seconds to get in properly (before you're good and practiced at it), which may not sound like a lot, but it's long enough to not recognize somebody's voice or hear the first sentence they say, or whatever. A *very mild* frustration. But like all things good and pleasant, it takes a little practice to get it just right and now I have it so that I can answer the phone, slip the EarBoom in my ear and start a conversation without missing a beat. In fact, I find this earpiece to be so comfortable that I forget that it's in until I go to scratch my ear or something!

The other complaint that I saw on here was that it's not compatible with Nokia phones. In fact, it even says right on the package that it's not compatible with Nokia. That's funny, I have a Nokia 3589i and it works just fine. They make two other models of EarBoom (one of which clearly would not have worked with my phone), both of which claim to be Nokia compatible, and *neither* of those works with my phone! Confusing? Yes! The problem is it doesn't work with *all* Nokia phones. While browsing at the store I noticed that the ones that claimed to be Nokia compatible had a list of phones that it works with, but it didn't include mine (it included one that was, numerically speaking, very close to my model: the 3590); which piqued my curiosity. And so I went to the friendly manager of the store that I was in and he opened two of the different packages for me and let me test both of them. One of them worked, the other didn't. The strange part of it was that we couldn't see a visible difference in the two units... and then one of us noticed that on one of them the jack had two small black stripes around it (that's this one, and if you look closely at the picture you can see them), while the other one (the one marked as Nokia compatible) had three. Hmmm... Curious.
So my advice is to either know your phone well (as in, have the little book handy) or ask for help before purchasing.

All in all 4 of 5 stars. I'd give it 5 stars on performance and comfort, but have to take it down a notch for an extended period of getting used to it and for confusing packaging.

Addendum:
Several months later the little piece of foam has fallen from the end of the boom so that any sound from the wind becomes almost unbearably loud for the person at the other end... And living in windy Providence, this is a bit of an annoyance.
Also, for a while I was having a problem where the earpiece would cut out for seconds at a time so that I couldn't hear the person on the other end of the line (and, likewise, they couldn't hear me) unless I jiggled the little jack. This was *very *FRUSTRATING.** Now, for some reason, I'm not having that problem anymore. I'm not really sure if the problem was due to my phone or the EarBoom. Either way, it's something buyers should be aware of.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Good headset
Review: I think this is a very good headset and it is very comfortable to use. I have had this headset for 3 years and I have no complaints about it.

I saw in someone else's review that they criticized this headset b/c it is not compatible with Nokia phones. If this person had half a clue they would know that 2.5 mm jack headsets (the industry standard) is NOT supported by Nokia. This is not the manufacturer's fault that Nokia decided to be different from everyone else.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: The only earpiece I'll use
Review: I'm surprised to find complaints here. The Jabra Earboom is definitely the best earpiece/microphone I've ever used. Sound quality is great (both ways) and it's very comfortable. I have one in each car. It comes with earpiece covers in 6 sizes so if people are having trouble with them then they must be using the wrong cover.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Best earpiece I've found!
Review: I've tried several different earpieces for my cell phone and this Jabra one is the first one I've found that fits my ear comfortably. The sound quality is excellent as well. I love that it comes with three different sizes for each ear- although I do only use one size I happen to alternate ears. When I got a new cell phone I gave my husband my old earboom and he was able to use it with one of the difference sized ear pieces. I found this unit to be quite durable. I generally only use it when I'm in my car, not when I'm walking around.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: This thing stinks
Review: If you're gonna buy an earpiece that's gonna last from Jabra, then the EarSet would be the best one. It works, don't get me wrong, but I would rather just wear one where I can talk into it and not have to worry about having the microphone in the right place and all of that kinda stuff. With the EarBoom, the mic has to be in a certain position and all of this other stuff. That's my opinion, but maybe others take care of things better than I do. Don't buy it if you're destructive like I am. Guilty as charged.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: The little thing that spoils the design...
Review: It could have been the best HF-set ever, however I've got a small problem: when used with 1800MHz and 900MHz GSM phone you can constantly hear a buzz in the earpiece, obviously generated in the cable from the antenna. I've tried to change the position of the cable and couldn't improve the sound. I've never had this sort of problem before so I wonder what's so differrent in this one...

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: A good unit at a great price. Worth a shot.
Review: Jabra makes, by far the best hands-free devices on the market. This particular model, the EarBoom, is not with it's faults. However, it will meet your needs for the most part if you figure out it's peculiarities.

Jabra provides multiple ear gels for comfort and for left ear or right ear use. The criticism that they are hard to get used to is valid. You have to try putting them in different ways till you figure it out. The instructions are not a substitute for trial and error I suppose.

As for the hands-free jack on your phone, you have to make sure you have a 2.5 millimeter jack. That is the one with 2 stripes on the plug. Unfortunately, a specific compatibility list is hard to come by. Look at the specs for your phone and give it a try.

The microphone will capture sound just fine, despite the short arm. If you find people are telling you your voice is muffled, you must slighly twist the microphone head. I have found that sometimes, if it is at the wrong angle, it will not capture sound as well. The arm is flexible enough that it can be adjusted slightly.

I also prefer the EarWave Boom or the EarWrap, which have wraparound ear attachments and a slightly longer more solid arm. The Jabra EarWave Bud doesn't have a microphone arm, but instead has the small mic on the cable with a clip to attach it to your tie. Personally I don't like those models. I have not found much difference in sound quality, though the EarWave Boom and the EarWrap are somehow easier to figure out.

For difficulty of use and for a microphone arm style that I just don't like, I have docked this unit 2 stars. It should be noted that none of Jabra's newer models have this microphone arm any longer But this is good bang for the buck. Try other higher end models if you are more demanding, like I am, and are willing to spend the money.


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